Spécial Club: a vintage the grower must defend before a panel
Spécial Club is a vintage Champagne that can only be made by members of the Club Trésors de Champagne, an association of growers founded in 1971. Each vintage must pass two blind tastings before a panel of oenologists, and goes into a bottle whose shape is reserved for the Club.
What is Spécial Club?
It is the best vintage Champagne of a grower belonging to the Club Trésors de Champagne, approved by the Club's panel.
The name indicates neither a style nor a grape variety. A Spécial Club (pronounced spay-syal kloob) from one grower may be pure Chardonnay, from another Pinot Noir or Pinot Blanc. Three things unite them: the vintage on the label, the same bottle with the Club's emblem, and the procedure every wine must go through before it is given this name.
The Club's members are growers who farm their own vineyards and make wine from them themselves. On the label such producers are usually marked with the abbreviation RM (récoltant-manipulant (pronounced ray-kol-tahn ma-nee-pew-lahn)). We write more about the abbreviations NM, RM and CM in the article who really made your Champagne.
What is the Club Trésors de Champagne?
It is an association of Champagne growers founded in 1971; today it has 25 members.
The Club describes itself as the first association of growers who make their own Champagne. It has 25 members from four parts of the appellation: Montagne de Reims (pronounced mohn-TAN-yuh duh RANS), Vallée de la Marne (czyt. wale de la marn), Côte des Blancs (pronounced koht day BLAHN) from the Côte de Sézanne (czyt. kot de sezan) and the Côte des Bar (pronounced koht day BAR). A new member signs a charter of commitments, and in Reims the Club runs (pronounced rans), on rue Olivier Métra, a shop and bar selling its members' Champagnes.
The list includes Paul Bara (czyt. pol bara) from Bouzy (pronounced boo-ZEE), Pierre Gimonnet (pronounced pyair zhee-mo-nay) from Cuis (pronounced KWEE), Henri Goutorbe (pronounced ahn-ree goo-torb) from Aÿ (pronounced ah-EE), Forget-Chemin (pronounced for-zhay shmah) from Ludes (pronounced LOOD), Nominé-Renard (czyt. nomine renar) from Villevenard, Duménil from Sacy, Salmon (pronounced sal-mon) from Chaumuzy, Loriot-Pagel (pronounced lor-yo pa-zhel) from Festigny and Rémy Massin (pronounced ray-mee mas-san) from Ville-sur-Arce in the Côte des Bar.
How does a wine become a Spécial Club?
The grower submits a vintage under the Club's rules, and the wine is tasted blind twice by five oenologists, who must approve it unanimously.
A grower cannot simply call their best bottle Spécial Club. First they choose a vintage they consider promising and make the wine according to the Club's rules. The entry is then tasted blind by oenologists: the Club states that the panel has five members, that the wine must pass two tastings and that the decision must be unanimous. If the vintage does not pass, it cannot become a Spécial Club.
That is why a grower's Spécial Club appears only in some years. The Club keeps its own wine library, where the oldest bottles come from the 1971 vintage, the first in the association's history.
How do you recognise a Spécial Club on the shelf?
By the distinctive bottle with the Club's crest and the words “Spécial Club” with the vintage.
The bottle has a shape used only by Club members, so the Spécial Clubs of two different growers look similar on the shelf and differ only in their labels. There is always a vintage: Spécial Club is never made as a non-vintage Champagne. On the label you will also find the producer's code (usually RM) with a number, as on every bottle of Champagne (how to read a Champagne label).
| Producer and village | What goes into their Spécial Club |
|---|---|
| Pierre Gimonnet, Cuis | Blanc de Blancs (pronounced blahn duh BLAHN) Extra Brut in three versions: separately from Chouilly (pronounced shoo-YEE), from Oger (pronounced oh-zhay) and as Grands Terroirs |
| Loriot-Pagel, Festigny | blanc de noirs (pronounced blahn duh NWAR), extra brut |
| Rémy Massin, Ville-sur-Arce | two versions: a Blanc de Noirs from Pinot Noir and a Blanc de Blancs from the rare Pinot Blanc |
| Paul Bara, Bouzy | a blend of grapes from Bouzy, as separate white and rosé wines |
Is Spécial Club a Champagne for everyone?
It is a bottle for someone who wants to get to know a grower at their best, or to compare how different villages taste in the same year. Spécial Club is made in small quantities and goes mainly to the Club's shop in Reims, to the growers themselves and to selected shops and restaurants in France and abroad.
Our catalogue includes, to order, the Spécial Clubs of several Club members, including Paul Bara (white and rosé), Henri Goutorbe, Forget-Chemin and Nominé-Renard. The growers' bottles we have in the shop are gathered in the ranking Champagnes from growers.
The first bottle is a premier cru (pronounced pruh-MYAY KREW) Blanc de Blancs from Gimonnet, a Club member; the second and third are Champagnes from other growers in our range: an Extra Brut from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ (pronounced ma-RUH-ee sewr ah-EE) and a Blanc de Noirs from Les Riceys (pronounced lay ree-say).
